I wondered why they cared about a servant so much. Then I suddenly felt like an fool. I'd never thought about it since that day I asked her who she was, but now I realize I'd just assumed she was a servant, but no way could she be. There were enough clues, but the 1,000 gold bounty was what put it all together, though I really should have put it together before.
As soon as we entered the room, I spread out some random things to make it look like we would be coming back. Too many people had seen us yesterday for no one to come looking; 1,000 gold is a LOT of money.
After I'd finished, I turned to Lila, "Who are you actually? No one cares about a servant enough to issue a 1,000 gold bounty; you must be a noble at the very least."
She looked mildly insulted, "I never said I was a servant."
I made a motion to hurry up with the explanation while I was thinking about how to get out of the city, as well as who she was. I had speculations now, maybe the daughter of a disgraced noble family, but that still doesn't explain 1,000 gold.
Only a noble could pay 1,000 gold, so she's a noble. She said her second mother locked her in there, so she must have been the daughter of the first wife of a lord or something, then the first wife died and the second didn't want her to get the inheritance. But why not just kill her directly, I can't figure out.
"Lila Sena," She looked like I should know what she meant, but seeing I didn't, she elaborated, "as in, the Sena royal family of the Beastholm Empire where we are."
"Well, that explains it. So why didn't your second mother just kill you directly? Actually, explain later, we need to leave here now. How are we going to disguise you?"
"We can use illusion magic."
"No, it might be seen through by someone more powerful if they are checking people for that."
"What about a physical disguise?"
"Your hair is the problem; maybe a hat can cover it, then put your tail under your clothing."
"Then cast an illusion on top of it."
I nodded and quickly bought a large witch-type hat and a mage's robe; I also thought of adding a wig of brown hair. I used some rope to tie her tail to her body so she couldn't accidentally move it. After she put on the mage robe, I stuffed every last strand of hair under her hat and wig. Now she looked like a brown-haired human witch.
After that, we each cast an illusion altering her facial features. The idea is if someone looks through one illusion layer then hopefully they won't try to look through another. I gave her a new identity to pass through the gates exiting the city as no doubt they will be checking papers.
I activated my invisibility and told her to leave, and I would follow right behind. She nodded and left the room; we headed down the stairs and left the inn. I was keeping watch but never saw anyone looking oddly at her.
When we reached the gate, there was a line to exit. While waiting in line, Lila was fidgeting with her fingers and clothing. I placed my hand on her shoulder, which seemed to help her calm down a little.
While waiting I looked at the gate, there were more guards than when we came in as well as someone casting magic on everyone that was leaving. The guards didn't worry me; it was the mage casting magic, which I recognized as dispel magic; this would definitely dispel both the illusions at once.
I whispered in Lila's ear, "Remove your illusion magic."
She made a funny face as if wanting to ask how that would help, but decided to trust me and did it anyway.
After her layer of illusion magic was removed, I altered mine to make it look like she was just trying to use it to look more beautiful and took it to an extreme so far that it did the opposite. It wasn't to fool anyone, I was rather trying to make it seem like that was all there was to her. That she was just some beauty-obsessed mage who went way overkill on her alterations.
Lila looked down at her now ridiculously large chest with an expression saying, "What in the actual fuck did you do to me?"
Next, she twisted around and looked at her huge butt and ultra-slim waist.
I leaned close to her ear and whispered, "When the mage dispels the illusion, look super embarrassed and cover your chest like you don't want anyone to see before running off crying."
I could see it clicked what I was trying to accomplish, complete and total distraction from actually looking at her too closely.
When it was her turn at the gate, she handed her papers to the guards, and they verified her identity. Next was the mage; I held my breath as she walked forward. He activated the dispel magic, and the illusion dropped, making certain areas appear to be a quarter the size they were; the mage was momentarly stunned and was definitely not looking at her face.
Lila did well at looking shocked and covered her chest, but she wasn't getting the red face full of embarrassment. I wasn't sure she could do that part, so I'd already prepared a plan to help her along; she seemed to not get embarrassed easily, so it might be hard, and I was going to have to go big.
I whispered in her ear with as much of a lustful tone I could muster, "Do you want me to fuck you right here in front of all these people and them see your naked body gawking at you all day?"
It worked; her face turned redder than I've ever seen a face before, and she started running away screaming about how no one is allowed to see her body. The whole thing took seconds, and the mage snapped out of it; I heard him call the next person as I followed her.
She kept running until she reached the forest a ways outside the city then stopped a little ways in. When I dropped my illusion, I could tell she was very mad, and she tried to beat me up. I held her arms and pulled her into a hug.
"I hate you!"
"Sorry, sorry, I wouldn't ever want anyone to see you."
"You're so mean!"
"I know, sorry. I didn't think you had the imagination to find something to be embarrassed about so I painted you a picture."
After a few moments, her anger subsided, and I held her for a bit longer before releasing her.
"Alright, we should start walking again. Still want to go to Ironspire?"
She nodded, and we started walking along the road in that direction.
"We never finished the goblin quest," she reminded me.
I forgot about that actually, if it isn't completed within 48 hours after accepting the quest it will go back onto the mission board, and whoever took the quest is at risk of having their rank lowered, having to pay fines, or a suspension on being able to take quests.
Thinking back I replied what I thought the punishment would be, "I think we won't be allowed to take quests for a week."
She nodded, "Not too bad then. We probably won't even see another guild branch for a week."
We walked in silence for a few hours before I remembered she never answered my question.
"You never told me about the second mother thing."
"Mm, right. My father was the king, and my mother was his first wife the queen, but she died when I was born. I never saw my father once in my whole life; I heard from the servants he didn't blame me for it, but he didn't want to be reminded of her since I looked like her.
The second mother also had some children, and she wanted them to get the throne. One of them was older than me, so usually, he would have, but I was a lot more talented in magic, so it may have gone to me.
Second mother couldn't do anything to me yet, other than make me do all the work and encourage her children to bully me until my father died when I was 5, then it was her chance to get rid of me for good.
She couldn't poison me or stab me or anything because the church would perform the burial as well as check if someone else caused my death. The church is independent of all the kingdoms and does all the burials for the royals along with a short investigation on the body.
If they happen to find something, then there would be a large investigation, and even if the investigation never found who did it, the people of the kingdom would know what happened to me and never forget I existed. Rumors would inevitably circulate that it was her or her children that did it.
She decided it would be best to just lock me up and have me kill myself and say I was depressed about father's death, or even better yet actually die of natural causes. After I never did, she probably just mostly forgot I existed; after all, it was just some low-rank guard throwing the bread in and checking for life signs. Probably never reporting anything till the life signs disappeared."
She looked angry and sad as she spoke, but I didn't expect it to be a happy story. I wrapped my arm around her, and we continued to walk in silence.
A couple of days went by until it was the morning of Lila's birthday. The night before, I stayed up for quite a while looking through the system shop for a good present. Unfortunately, I couldn't find wrapping paper or a gift bag, so I just had to hand it to her.
When she woke up, I was dangling an hairpin and a ring in front of her.
The hairpin was an artifact that would allow communication over a long range. It was made of black metal with mana crystals in it, so it was virtually indestructible with a small flower shape with a small purple gem in the center on one end.
The ring had a tracking spell engraved on the inside so I could always find her. The ring was a black metal band of the same material as the ear-cuff with a small purple gem embedded in it.
I had a plain ring also that was connected to both her tracking and communication spells.
"Happy Birthday." I put the items on her.
She admired the ring then asked, "I know it's my birthday and I like the things but why did you give me something today?"
"It's something people do on birthdays where I'm from."
She rolled over on top of me with a seductive look, her lower stomach firmly on my growing erection separated only by a thin layer of clothing. "You'll have to tell me about that place sometime."
I rolled over pinning her to the blanket below replying, "but not now."
I could feel my little brother was rock solid as it pressed into her.
I wasn't worried about anyone seeing us; we were a ways off the road in the forest and also cast a barrier blocking sight from the outside in.
I held both her wrists over her head against the ground in one hand and slid the other under her shirt gently tracing her curves. Her eyes filled with heat and her pink tongue licked her soft red lips. she tried to lift her head, but I pushed it back down and kissed her. I pressed my body tightly against her, no longer having any thoughts of self-control today.